The Old Soldier Looks Back On The Vietnam War

Posted on April 19, 2013 by pittsburghflashfictiongazette
Description: Troops of Co C, 1st Bn, 50th Inf ...

Description: Troops of Co C, 1st Bn, 50th Inf (Mech), 1st Cav Div (Airmobile) unload from CH-47 helicopter at Landing Zone Quick to begin a search and destroy mission in the Cay Giep Mountains, 29-30 Oct 1967. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I call myself the Old Soldier because I’m 66 years old and I served in Vietnam. 

I still remember obvious basic personal facts about the war.  I was a 105 mm towed-howitzer artilleryman.  I served in the 1st Cav (Airmobile).  We supported Custer’s old unit, the 1st of the 7th Cavalry.  When we weren’t towed into battle we were airlifted into battle by Chinook helicopter.
 
But I have fewer and fewer memories of incidents that I took part in.  Oh, I remember several of them, but there was a time when the war played over and over in my mind like a movie that I could not stop.  I would dream about the war.  I would wake up afraid that I was still in Vietnam.  Now I think about the war only when I want to.
 
I have a thick paperback book about the war that I’ve been reading over and over again for at least the past 15 years: Vietnam A History by Stanley Karnow.
 
It use to be that I would read the book as a participant in the action.  When I read the book now, I feel like an observer. 
 
The following story is based on my experiences as a 19-year-old soldier. 
A Viet Cong soldier crouches in a bunker with ...

A Viet Cong soldier crouches in a bunker with an SKS rifle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

***** 

Sky Troopers
 
It sounded like a fast ball pitched against the port hull of the big chopper.  Scott Delaney felt his stomach flutter and the pulse beat faster in his throat.  The door gunners were searching the jungle below.  Viet Cong were known to be in the area.  Over the deafening sound of the twin rotary blades and the high-pitched whine of the twin jet engines in the stern, the sharp impact came again.

Like Scott, many of the soldiers were teenagers, their sweaty faces gaunt with sunken eyes.  The door gunners were in harnesses as they leaned far out, one to port and one to starboard, trying to see where the rounds were coming from.  Scott held his toy-like rifle, the butt against the vibrating floor plates, up between his knees and waited. Over the deafening noise the sharp impact came again.

The new kid sitting directly across from Scott screamed and lurched forward and hit the deck.  His rifle clattered and his helmet rolled away on the deck.  Scott and others had been splattered with gore.  Scott had never been splattered with gore before.  The kid was crying, pleading for his mother.  Sarge started wrapping the kid, but soon it didn’t matter.  Scott had never seen anyone die before.

The door gunners were returning fire now.  The spent shell casings spewed into space.  The sharp impact came again.  Scott sensed the big chopper losing altitude.

Burt Johnson tapped Scott on the shoulder and nodded at the porthole behind them.  In the jungle below was a clearing, the unit landing zone.  A four man landing crew waited on the ground.  That’s when Scott smelt it.

Scott looked forward.  The two pilots struggled to keep control.  Scott looked aft.  The crew chief was standing, and then he crouched down and dipped the first two fingers of the right hand into a dark liquid on the the deck.  He rubbed the liquid between the thumb and first two fingers.  He smelt it.  He tasted it.  He stood up and began speaking rapidly into the mike of his head set to the pilots up front.

Scott looked out the porthole behind him.  Now he could not see the landing zone.  There were only trees everywhere.  Suddenly they were in the trees.  Scott was flung against the port hull.  Everyone shouting.  He was flung back against the starboard hull except now it was the deck.  Others fell on top of him, everyone shouting.

There was a loud, guttural WHOOOOOOOOSH!  Scott felt the great heat.  The crew chief came running wildly from the stern, his uniform ablaze.  He stumbled to his knees in flames.  Scott struggled to get up.  He grabbed someone’s leg.  He was kicked and stomped until he let go.  Above him everyone pushed and shoved while others stepped on him.  He had lost his helmet.  He had lost his rifle.  He couldn’t get up.  The smoke choked him.  Men screamed.  He knew he was going to die.

Burt Johnson got him under the arm pits and pulled him up.  Other hands lifted him up.  More hands pulled him out.

What was let of the crew chief was found in the smoldering wreckage.

The End

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Retirement: A Review Of Benefits For Seniors In PA

Posted on May 29, 2012 by pittsburghflashfictiongazette

The Old Soldier is 65 and of low-income.  So, if you are at least 65 years old, of low-income and you live in the State of Pennsylvania this post is for you.  Or if you know someone who can use this information let them know about it.  They will appreciate your kindness.

How’s everyone doing?

The Old Soldier is a life-long bachelor with no children.  Now that I’m retired I have to give structure to my life.  I finally have a good routine.  Up at dawn.  Do breathing and stretching exercises.  Do at least 15 minutes of cleaning the apartment and put up at least two posts before noon. 

Well, I’ve done my exercises and I moved the bed and ran the vacuum cleaner over the carpet under the bed and this is my second post.  It’s not 10:00 a.m. yet.

So, all senior citizens of low-income in Pennsylvania are eligible for the Pennsylvania Property Tax or Rent Rebate Program.  The Old Soldier covered this earlier in the year because the deadline for the form is June 1 of each year.  But this is something to keep in mind for next year.  You can pick up the form at your local Senior Citizens Center or at the public library.  The new forms usually arrive in April of each year.  The Old Soldier will probably get a check for $650 this year.

Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street, Pitts...

Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Photography was permitted without restriction in the area where this photograph was taken. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are at least 65 years old in Pennsylvania you are eligible for a free bus pass which allows you to ride free for the rest of your life.  The Pennsylvania Lottery pays for it.  Go to your nearest Senior Citizens Center and someone will help you to fill out the form you need and they will mail it for you and your pass will arrive in about one week.

Or, you can use your red, white and blue Medicare Health Insurance card to ride free, too.

And if you are a veteran and you were in the military during war-time you are eligible for a pension if you are 65 and of low-income.  You did not have to have served in a war zone.  You just have to have been in the military during war-time.  Contact your local Veterans Administration for more details.

The Old Soldier gets a nice pension from the VA.

I hope this information has been helpful.  Gray Power!

*****

English: A senior citizen is practicing an agi...

English: A senior citizen is practicing an agility exercise Français : Un vieillard pratique un exercice d’agilité Русский: Пожилой человек в равновесии на предплечьях (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes indeed, this is my second post.  The rest of my day is free; but since the Old Soldier will not have any cash flow until Thursday or Friday (karaoke Friday night) he might just take a nice walk around the neighborhood or maybe visit his younger brother in the assistant living facility where he lives.

I still have plenty of good stuff to read: two books on Andy Warhol, two books on ancient Sparta and 1984.

*****

Take a look around my blog.  The Old Soldier is pretty proud of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most dynamic flash fiction magazine on the Internet.  If you like the PFFG, click the follow button so that you don’t miss a single issue.

Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

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The Fading Middle Class And The Pension Time Bomb

Posted on May 27, 2012 by pittsburghflashfictiongazette

In Europe and in the United States, the debate rages on: economic growth or austerity.  European governments have found out that austerity is not popular.  The citizens of France, Greece and other countries have voted their governments out of office because austerity means pain for the working-class and the working-class are always a majority of the citizens of any country including the United States.  The so-called middle-class is vanishing in Europe and the United States.

The Old Soldier is no social or financial expert.  Everything I have stated so far is part of the public record.  And if you don’t know these facts, dear gentle reader, you haven’t been paying attention.

Giant Eagle

Giant Eagle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Old Soldier lives on social security, a pension from the Veterans Administration and a pension from the UFCW Local 23 and Giant Eagle Pension Fund.

I recently got a letter from the Local 23 and Giant Eagle that stated: This is to inform you that on March 30, 2012, the Plan actuary certified to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and also to the Plan sponsor, that the Plan is in endangered status for the plan year beginning January 1, 2012.  Federal law requires that you receive this Notice.

The letter goes on to state that either the Plan has to be better funded or that my pension will be cut.

Seal of the United States Department of the Tr...

Seal of the United States Department of the Treasury, using a slightly older color scheme. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Millions of working-class people have either lost their pensions or had them cut; which brings us right back to the Big Banks gambling with their customers’ money on risky financial instruments that the Big Banks could not even explain to investigators exactly what was in the instruments.  They just sold the instruments off and made their money until the instruments came due and we, the working-class, had to pay for their greed.

Now the politicians in Europe and the United States have to figure out how to get the majorities in their societies to accept more austerity in order to pay down the debt that the Big Banks got us into.

This is not a good time to be a politician who advocates austerity over economic growth.

*****

Logo of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a committ...

Logo of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a committee in the United States Department of the Treasury. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello, my brother and sister bloggers, readers, writers and my Flash Fiction Fanatics.  It’s around 8:00 a.m. in Pittsburgh on a muggy Sunday morning. 

How’s everyone doing?

The blogging day has begun.  My apartment building and the city sure seem quiet.  Well, it is Sunday and it is a holiday.  The Old Soldier stayed up late last night reading the books he got from the public library on Andy Warhol and ancient Greek history.

A flash fiction writer can learn from everything he or she reads.

*****

Click on the follow button so that you don’t miss a single issue of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most dynamic flash fiction publication on the Internet. 

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